The wireless communications industry is investigating many means to improve the general areas of coverage and system capacity, as well as other characteristics of the networks and devices associated with it. Currently, service providers can review the benefits of enhancements by way of monitoring points and programs. The users, however, receive no specific indications of the benefits of enhancement technologies. Therefore, one area of development, for example, involves wireless transmit/receive units (WTRUs) which may include, but are not limited to, a user equipment, a mobile station, a fixed or mobile subscriber unit, a pager, or any other type of device capable of operating in a wireless environment.
The addition of some technology to improve the performance of a WTRU needs to be justified in the minds of the users. Otherwise, a user may not be willing to incur the costs associated with a particular enhancement technology. Antenna array technology, for example, comes in a number of forms and provides many enhancements. Dramatic gains in operation may sometimes be obvious to a user, such as a data download time that takes seconds instead of tens of seconds. In general, however, gains are often more subtle, such as coverage in a previously unavailable area or a moderate data rate increase of, for example, twenty percent.
Another important issue is user misconceptions regarding delays that are a result of a data source and not a radio frequency (RF) link. Such misconceptions can be detrimental to both the user and the service provider if WTRUs are maligned or returned for allegedly not living up to expectations.
Accordingly, it is desirable to users that a WTRU having a particular enhancement technology is providing superior performance over WTRUs without such technology.